Whether I look with a good or an evil eye upon men, I find them always
at one problem, each and all of them: to do that which conduces to the
conservation of the human species. 31
To laugh at oneself as one would have to laugh in order to laugh _out
of the veriest truth,_--to do this the best have not hitherto had
enough of the sense of truth, and the most endowed have had far too
little genius! There is perhaps still a future even for laughter! 32
The ignoble nature is distinguished by the fact that it keeps its
advantage steadily in view, and that this thought of the end and
advantage is even stronger than its strongest impulse: not to be
tempted to inexpedient activities by its impulses--that is its
wisdom and inspiration. In comparison with the ignoble nature the
higher nature is more irrational:--for the noble, magnanimous, and
self-sacrificing person succumbs in fact to his impulses, and in his
best moments his reason _lapses_ altogether. 37
The strongest and most evil spirits have hitherto advanced mankind the
most: they always rekindled the sleeping passions--all orderly arranged
society lulls the passions to sleep. 39
The lust of property and love: what different associations each of
these ideas evokes!--and yet it might be the same impulse twice named.
51
The poison by which the weaker nature is destroyed is strengthening to
the strong individual--and he does not call it poison. 56-57
The virtues of a man are called _good,_ not in respect of the results
they have for himself, but in respect of the results which we expect
therefrom for ourselves and for society.... The praise of the virtues
is the praise of something which is privately injurious to the
individual; it is praise of impulses which deprive man of his noblest
self-love, and the power to take the best care of himself.... The
"neighbour" praises unselfishness because _he profits by it!_ If the
neighbour were "unselfishly" disposed himself, he would reject that
destruction of power, that injury for _his advantage,_ he would thwart
such inclinations in their origin, and above all he would manifest his
unselfishness just by _not giving it a good name!_ 58-60
Living--that is to be cruel and inexorable towards all that becomes
weak and old in ourselves, and not only in ourselves. 68
It is probable that the manufacturers and great magnates of commerce
have hitherto lacked too much all those forms and attributes of a
_superior race,_ which alone make persons interesting; if they had
had the nobility of the newly-born in their looks and bearing, there
would perhaps have been no socialism in the masses of the people. For
these are really ready for _slavery_ of every kind, provided that
the superior class above them constantly shows itself legitimately
superior, and _born_ to command--by its noble presence! 78
When one continually prohibits the expression of the passions as
something to be left to the "vulgar," to coarser, bourgeois, and
peasant natures--that is, when one does not want to suppress the
passions themselves, but only their language and demeanour, one
nevertheless realises _therewith_ just what one does not want: the
suppression of the passions themselves, or at least their weakening and
alteration.... 83
In magnanimity there is the same amount of egoism as in revenge....
86-87
Where bad eyesight can no longer see the evil impulse as such,
on account of its refinement,--there man sets up the kingdom of
goodness.... 88
To become the advocate of the rule--that may perhaps be the ultimate
form and refinement in which nobility of character will reveal itself
on earth. 90
Women are all skilful in exaggerating their weaknesses, indeed they are
inventive in weaknesses, so as to seem quite fragile ornaments to which
even a grain of dust does harm; their existence is meant to bring home
to man's mind his coarseness, and to appeal to his conscience. 101
There is something quite astonishing and extraordinary in the education
of women of the higher class; indeed, there is perhaps nothing more
paradoxical. All the world is agreed to educate them with as much
ignorance as possible _in erotics,_ and to inspire their soul with a
profound shame of such things, and the extremest impatience and horror
at the suggestion of them. It is really here only that all the "honour"
of women is at stake; what would one not forgive in them in other
respects! But here they are intended to remain ignorant to the very
backbone:--they are intended to have neither eyes, ears, words, nor
thoughts for this, their "wickedness"; indeed knowledge here is already
evil. And then! To be hurled as with an awful thunderbolt into reality
and knowledge with marriage--and indeed by him whom they most love and
esteem: to have to encounter love and shame in contradiction, yea, to
have to feel rapture, abandonment, duty, sympathy, and fright at the
unexpected proximity of God and animal, and whatever else besides! all
at once!--There, in fact, a psychic entanglement has been effected
which is quite unequalled! Even the sympathetic curiosity of the wisest
discerner of men does not suffice to divine how this or that woman
gets along with the solution of this enigma and the enigma of this
solution; what dreadful, far-reaching suspicions must awaken thereby
in the poor unhinged soul; and forsooth, how the ultimate philosophy
and scepticism of the woman casts anchor at this point!--Afterwards the
same profound silence as before: and often even a silence to herself,
a shutting of her eyes to herself.--Young wives on that account make
great efforts to appear superficial and thoughtless; the most ingenious
of them simulate a kind of impudence.--Wives easily feel their husbands
as a question-mark to their honour, and their children as an apology or
atonement,--they require children, and wish for them in quite another
spirit than a husband wishes for them.--In short, one cannot be gentle
enough towards women! 104-105
Of what consequence is all our art in artistic products, if that higher
art, the art of the festival, be lost by us? 124
The best thing I could say in honour of Shakespeare, _the man,_ is that
he believed in Brutus and cast not a shadow of suspicion on the kind of
virtue which Brutus represents! 131
We must rest from ourselves occasionally by contemplating and looking
down upon ourselves, and by laughing or weeping _over_ ourselves from
an artistic remoteness: we must discover the _hero,_ and likewise the
_fool,_ that is hidden in our passion for knowledge; we must now and
then be joyful in our folly, that we may continue to be joyful in our
wisdom! And just because we are heavy and serious men in our ultimate
depth, and are rather weights than men, there is nothing that does us
so much good as the _fool's cap and bells:_ we need them in presence of
ourselves--we need all arrogant, soaring, dancing, mocking, childish
and blessed Art, in order not to lose the _free dominion over things_
which our ideal demands of us. 146
The general character of the world ... is to all eternity chaos;
not by the absence of necessity, but in the sense of the absence of
order, structure, form, beauty, wisdom, and whatever else our æsthetic
humanities are called. Judged by our reason, the unlucky casts are far
oftenest the rule, the exceptions are not the secret purpose; and the
whole musical box repeats eternally its air, which can never be called
a melody,--and finally the very expression, "unlucky cast" is already
an anthropomorphising which involves blame. But how could we presume to
blame or praise the universe! Let us be on our guard against ascribing
to it heartlessness and unreason, or their opposites; it is neither
perfect, nor beautiful, nor noble; nor does it seek to be anything of
the kind, it does not at all attempt to imitate man! It is altogether
unaffected by our æsthetic and moral judgments! Neither has it any
self-preservative instinct, nor instinct at all; it also knows no law.
Let us be on our guard against saying that there are laws in nature.
There are only necessities: there is no one who commands, no one who
obeys, no one who transgresses. When you know that there is no design,
you know also that there is no chance: for it is only where there is a
world of design that the word "chance" has a meaning. Let us be on our
guard against saying that death is contrary to life. The living being
is only a species of dead being, and a very rare species.--Let us be on
our guard against thinking that the world eternally creates the new.
There are no eternally enduring substances; matter is just another such
error as the God of the Eleatics. 152-153.
Man has been reared by his errors: firstly, he saw himself always
imperfect; secondly, he attributed to himself imaginary qualities;
thirdly, he felt himself in a false position in relation to the animals
and nature; fourthly, he always devised new tables of values, and
accepted them for a time as eternal and unconditioned, so that at one
time this, and at another time that human impulse or state stood first,
and was ennobled in consequence. When one has deducted the effect of
these four errors, one has also deducted humanity, humaneness, and
"human dignity." 160